It WAS a dream. The "Squidley" guy was probably an ordinary costumed squid working for the Medieval Moments attraction.

In "Pranks A Lot," SpongeBob and Patrick turn themselves invisible and try to scare Sandy into thinking they're ghosts... by wearing sheets over their entire bodies, making them very visible. However, if one looks at the shape of their figures while they have the sheets on, it's obvious that they don't have their water helmets on (which they need to survive inside Sandy's treedome). Yes, this is a minor issue, but the people demand continuity!

To be fair they were only in there for a few seconds. Also, maybe the artists decided to omit the helmets to make their silhouettes more distinguishable.

In the episode with the Toy Barrel, For some reason the Illuminati Logo- the All Seeing Eye appears twice, one in the pile of toys in Squidward's house, the other one in the Toy Barrel itself. Why are they there? Who would want to buy an Eye in a pyramid for a toy?

Why doesn't Plankton just sneak into the Krusty Krab at night to steal a Krabby Patty or the formula? No one's (usually) there at night, the security is nil, and the two times Plankton does it, the only reason for his failure was because he involved SpongeBob both times.

I think they showed that security wasn't that bad at the Krusty Krab. In one episode Squidward breaks in at night and gets lit on fire by a gasoline trap. He simply doesn't want to risk immolation for the recipe.

On the same vein, one of the *ahem* Season 6 episodes had a criminal being arrested for eating quasi-gummi fish (the policefish said that he was a monster for eating his own kind). Besides the weirdness of the blatant cannibalism joke, where would he get those? I mean, if he was smoking the Bikini Bottom equivalent of weed, that would make sense, but a cannibalistic candy? How would you advertise them?!

If this troper is right, a "chub" is a cut of fish. "Chum" is fish ground up into a paste-like substance to be tossed into water to attract sharks... dang it.

"Spongicus" and "Jailbreak!" confirm the abscene of dead fish, although only the former mentions there is whale blubber.

Speaking of which, why don't we actually see any sharks in SpongeBob? The only one I can think of is the bodybuilder who appeared in the infomercial in "Musclebob Buffpants".

You're forgetting the family of sharks shown in "Spongeguard on Duty".

And the shark guy who taught SpongeBob how to drive blindfolded.

And the shark from the Anchor Arms commercial.

That's the bodybuilder from the infomercial in "Musclebob Buffpants" mentioned above.

Speaking of sharks, wouldn't they like chum? And thus become customers of Plankton's Chum Bucket? Never mind, this troper hasn't seen SpongeBob in quite a while...

They would, it's just that Plankton is really, really bad at making it. Squidward's chum is shown to be so good that even Spongebob completely forgets about Krabby Patties after eating it because it's just that much better.

The buns are apparently made of seaweed (according to the episode in which Plankton hijacked SpongeBob's brain) so the meat could be just about anything.

Seaweed-seed. One would assume this is similar to how we use sesame seeds.

Ummm...fish eat other fish. I mean, look at sharks.

Yeah, it's only cannibalism if that species eats its own species.

Well, if you're going to call realism into this, then Plankton's a good meal for Pearl and Gary, and Patrick can be eaten by Mr. Krabs and jellyfish. Wait a minute, that's it! Krabby meat is made from starfish.

One post-movie episode actually played on this by having Plankton think that Pearl was out to eat him.

But... she's a sperm whale, which are carnivorous and prey primarily on squid... if anything, she should be trying to eat Squidward.

Supported in the episode where Mr. Krabs is having a mid-life crisis, eats a Krabby Patty and says "So that's what I taste like"

Boy:"Mommy, my Krabby Patty tastes funny." Mother:" Well no wonder, it's all old and dried out. Like that man over there. Now put it away where it belongs. In the garbage." That's how Krabs gets the patty and tries it.

In a similar vein, how come that Bikini Bottom's got a beach when it's already underwater? And how come that, in that episode with SpongeBob's bubble friend, a fish drowns because the bubble friend didn't dig him out of the sand and the tide came? I mean, the guy's a fish and they're underwater anyway, for Christ's sake!

Why so many episodes make littering Serious Business. The first time littering was used as an offense was "Squid On Strike", but it was a minor gag. After the movie, it has shown up in several episodes. SpongeBob's Cousin Black Jack was in prison for it (wonder what he did?). In "Driven to Tears", the cop pursues Patrick and SpongeBob after SpongeBob tears up Patrick's license, claiming "This is why I joined the force!" (made even worse when SpongeBob tells him about Patrick's bad driving, and he calls him a tattletale). The worst offender would be "Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful", where apparently having a melted statue counts as litter, even if the city erected it. Rule of Funny aside, it's becoming ridiculous. Of course, there are only so many offenses a kid-friendly show can show. (Heck, they tried with the "fish candy", and made the complaint above.)

I think it's because litter and pollution underwater would kill the fish by choking them to death. You've heard of all those dolphins who get caught in the plastic can holder things right?

But, their water has gravity, and their dumps aren't contained in a HAZMAT unit or anything, it's just left open exposed to the water like any other dump would.

It's a combination of Rule of Funny and a pun on the fact that underwater critters suffer because of human littering and waste. It doesn't have to make consistent sense in-universe.

This troper is reminded of the song Alice's Restaurant, which does involve getting arrested, by the FBI yet, for littering.

If we're going by the whole "David Hasselhoff is HUGE" thing, you only saw David Hasselhoff up against SpongeBob and Patrick, not Pearl or Mermaid Man or anyone. Sea sponges and starfish aren't very big in real life.

She's half-crab. Fulfills the minimum required logic for Spongebob.

Considering how many times SpongeBob has failed his boating test, can't they just ban him from boating due to some mental deficiency or something?

In one episode, "Doing Time", in a flashback, Mrs. Puff says that she promises that "As long as a student is willing to learn, I will NEVER give up on them!".

Why does this show keep "eversing"? Sugar Bowl one second, creepy show with realistic-like animation the next. Look, it looks cheerful but in the western animation Nightmare Fuel page, the show has its own page. Are the writers huge dicks to be doing this so much?

Maybe it's a misguided attempt to keep SpongeBob popular by making it the new Ren and Stimpy (the first big hit Nicktoon). As stated in Gross Out Show: The grossness was not what made Ren and Stimpy successful! It's a shame not even Nickelodeon realizes that.

It's not like the first three seasons were totally devoid of scary moments, though.

True, but when you really look the old episodes, it's astounding how much it's changed. Many earlier episodes were not only far more gentle and relaxed with feelgood humour, they also had tearjerking moments that tugged at the heartstrings, for example SpongeBob saying goodbye to his original pineapple in "Home Sweet Pineapple", the beautiful musical number in "Welcome To The Chum Bucket" and the "Remembering SpongeBob" sequence from the Lost Episode. The new episodes, in comparison, are bizarrely different, with the traits every character taken to negative extremes, painfully sadistic humour and an overabundance of episodes with disturbing and sometimes offensive plotlines. If you compare an episode like "Pizza Delivery" with "A Pal For Gary" or "Squidville" with "Face Freeze", the episodes are so different in tone that it's really creepy.

Which one of you flatfoots stole my lollipop?

Neither of them. Patrick ate it.

I mean it.

Has anybody else noticed the retcons concerning the whole 'under the sea' thing? In one episode, there's wind blowing through SpongeBob's holes. UNDERWATER. And in that episode with the submarine, how could chum be sucked into the submarine when the sub is filled with water? Don't even get me started with the underwater rivers and the fire in the surfing episode. Goo Lagoon is made of water now, not goo. And that bugs me. At least in the earlier episodes, they usually played it for humor or lampshaded it. Now...it's just ignorance.

Perhaps the wind is a water current?

...You weren't at all surprised that during the surfing episode, they wash up on an island underwater?

Well, for that last one, there actually are undersea lakes. All it takes is water with much higher saline concentration. Search YouTube, if you may, "Blue Planet" has shown it at least once. For the rest... Bellisario's Maxim, too much?

While we're on the subject, does anybody else realize that the submarine shouldn't even work underwater? Or that all the episodes referenced to here are after the movie?

Why is SpongeBob shaped like a regular house sponge when his parents are shaped like sea sponges?

Maybe he's from an affair?

Or it's a recessive thing?

His parents are Loofahs?

Obviously he shaves, like that one episode where he makes his head from square to round, exposing his brain.

She does have to surface for air. In the beginning of the episode where she starts working for the Krusty Krab, Mr. Krabs mentions "it seems just like yesterday I taught her how to breach" and shows a picture of them jumping out of the ocean's surface.

Not really. I've heard it used as a minced oath for "Mother of God" before.

I've always thought that when someone says "Mother of Pearl" they were exclaiming it in surprise, because this "Mother of Pearl" doesn't exist. Perhaps the same goes for SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs?

Yeah, it's a dream sequence, but say Krabs actually caught Moby Dollar. It's still just a one dollar bill, isn't it, no matter the physical size of the bill itself?

Maybe he could exchange it for a larger number of bills based on its size somewhere?

It's related to all those over-sized novelty checks used for fundraisers?

It's Mr. Krabs you're talking about. He would gladly risk his life even for less amounts of money.

In fact, he spent one episode obsessing over a penny. Which SpongeBob found.

It exhales money. (For those that have not seen the episode, that is not a joke.)

He can chop it up into little pieces that grow into money?

Personally I think the reason for catching it is really obvious. It's a dollar considered, in his imagination, extremely rare and difficult to catch, like Moby Dick the whale. He's not catching it so he can spend it, he's catching it so he can own it as a trophy.

I can understand SpongeBob having brown hair, but Patrick having black hair and Squidward having brown hair? Or maybe we've just become too accustomed to the fandom versions.

Why is that so unbelievable?

Patrick does have black hair. It's been shown in the show.

And Squidward has blonde hair, as shown in "The Original Fry Cook".

Spongebob has blonde hair, according to his driver's license. He probably just shaves it off or gets it cut because he likes it that way? And in "Clams," his hair grew out and it was light blonde.

In the bully episode it was a plot point that SpongeBob didn't have bones or organs, but in many later episodes he does have them.

Now that I think about it, I can't remember seeing SpongeBob with bones until after the movie, so...

WRONG! He's shown to have bones in "I Had An Accident". Plus, his brain has been exposed in an episode whose title I had forgotten. And both episodes came before the movie.

His brain could be squishy enough to not be damaged by Flats's punching (Halloween Episode, btw), and "I Had An Accident" is both a Bizarro Episode (even for SpongeBob) and very close to the end of season 3, which technically still means that SpongeBob tends to have bones more as the series progresses. The movie just accelerated things.

Indeed; that episode was the single least comprehensible episode of the original four seasons. Still funny as heck, though.

SpongeBob does have bones in "Squid on Strike", but it was in the distant future so it could be evolution in action.

His "bones" aren't really bones, and Flats' punching isn't that hard.

If SpongeBob and Squidward have to pay to work at the Krusty Krab how are they not bankrupt and why is Squidward still working there?

On the same note; why doesn't Squidward quit his job if he hates it so much? I'm sure he can find a better one. I doubt he gets a good pay, and he has SpongeBob and Krabs to bother him, so him being lazy there isn't worth it.

Brother, Can You Spare A Dime. Squidward quit, and he became homeless.

According to the episode "The Original Fry Cook", the only reason he's working at the Krusty Krab is because he believed his clarinet career would take off from there. Also, Squidward has worked longer at the Krusty Krab, so you'd think he would begin to get paid soon after the series began.

SpongeBob said he had to pay when he first started. Presumably he's been promoted enough to actually get paid, rather than vice versa.

Actually, in the episode One Coarse Meal, it is revealed that Krabs pays his employees with fake money.

On Squid on Strike SpongeBob didn't accept his pay check because "grilling is his passion". I think he may have a "real" (higher paying) job on the side.

Well in "Shell Shocked" we learn his appendeges can grow back. He's probably a millionaire from organ trading, but keeps the fact hidden.

Skill Crane shows that, yes, Mr. Krabs pays both Squidward and Spongebob, apparently on a weekly basis like most jobs. ("But Mr. Krabs, today is Monday?") Their wages could be minimum wage for all we know, and the only reason Mr. Krabs so willingly gave what appeared to amount to at least $20 in quarters is because he knew Squidward would lose it all to the Skill Crane before the end of the day.

Why does SpongeBob keep forgiving the overly stupid Patrick Star when he screws up his life? Patrick is a trademark poisonous friend, as much as SpongeBob is to Squidward. So why in hell does SpongeBob have to learn to tolerate him?

Because SpongeBob is an idiot. Not as retarded and brainless as Patrick, but an idiot nonetheless.

SpongeBob is also a very kind, forgiving sponge. And look at all Pat has done for him!

I've often wondered this myself, as a good number of the stuff in earlier episodes that SpongeBob gets blamed for are really Patrick's fault.

It at least seems to be reversed the odd occasion, in "Porous Pockets" for example Patrick rather quickly forgives SpongeBob for acting like a snobbish Jerk Ass.

Maybe, in a deep part of his mind, Patrick realizes how much of a bother, if not an annoying or even outright dangerous, friend he is to SpongeBob and forgave him so quickly because he inwardly feels guilty about causing him so much trouble only to be forgiven time and again by SpongeBob?

In the episode where Mr. Krabs "sheds" his shell and makes SpongeBob wear it to his navy convention, are Krabs's friends so dumb that they can't tell that there is a yellow sponge inside the red shell? Seriously, you would think that being in the navy/army would let you see obvious differences in your best friends, but yeah, maybe it's just me that's bugged.

Last I checked, the only thing that was really noticeable was the eyes; They probably just thought he had changed over time.

About the eyes— why was SpongeBob able to reshape his own eyes to resemble Mr. Krabs's eyes in Krusty Love, but didn't bother in that episode (Shell of a Man)?

In "Krusty Love" he does that temporarily. If he kept his eyes like that for longer, they would probably start hurting very badly. SpongeBob is largely resistant to injury, but that doesn't mean it can't happen.

In the episode where a dream version of SpongeBob invades the dreams of others, why, in response, do the people whose dreams were invaded break into the real SpongeBob's house, wake him up, then yell at him about it? It's like it's teaching kids to yell at someone for being in your dream.

Similar to the water problem, it seems water acts the same as air in the SpongeBob Universe. In one episode, SpongeBob and Patrick fall down an abyss. I know they don't have fins, but they could have just crawled up like any Sea Star and Sea Sponge could. Same thing for the fish. Except for moments of funny, the fish never swim but just walk.

If Squidward only has suction cups for hands, how can he play the clarinet? In fact, how can Mr. Krabs do anything involving hand manipulation when he only has claws?

Note that, aside from a few instances, Squidward doesn't play the clarinet particularly well. As for Mr. Krabs, it's been shown a few times that he can seemingly grow extra claws when they're needed for pointing. Maybe he did a deal with Neptune wherein he gained limited shapeshifting abilities in exchange for his soul?

How can SpongeBob have parents when his species can reproduce by budding?

Adoption?

They got married, then budded SpongeBob.

Budding isn't the only way sea sponges reproduce, they also spawn into the open water and hope everything works out.

If Plankton "WENT TO COLLEGE!" then how did he end up with a dead-end restaurant job? What did he major in that that's all he can do with his life?

Perhaps he flunked?

Seems unlikely. He is a master of creating robots, especially his sentient robot wife, Karen. There must be a degree for that. Perhaps if it wasn't for his shortsightedness he would have found a job that would have been more beneficial to society other than making chumwiches and flipping burgers. He even managed to take over the world in the movie.

Actually, he only took over Bikini Bottom. And according to the episode where he falls in love with Mr. Krab's mother, when Karen starts blabbing on, Plankton asks "Why did I ever buy that computer wife?".

His rivalry with Krabs stems from before college. Presumably after he got his degree he opened a restaurant in hopes of beating Krabs at his own game.

Maybe he majored in Restaurant Management.

Villainous Breakdown perhaps. He used to be somewhat competent, around the same time Krabs started torturing him unprovoked he seemed to lose his mind.

Unfortunately Truth in Television for some people. It's perfectly possible to spend four years in college and end up in a dead-end job if your major was something that there's not much call for outside of teaching, such as Medieval French Literature or somesuch, and since many employers hire strictly based on the possession of a college degree and not practical knowledge, Plankton may simply be unemployable. My local paper refuses to even consider hiring applicants who hold less than a bachelor's degree, for instance.

Dead-end? He owns his own restaurant. I mean, it could do better, sure, but it's not like he's just a cook.

Now I know they've covered this subject on the show, but if SpongeBob and Patrick cause Squidward so much misery why doesn't he just pack his stuff and leave Bikini Bottom? I mean, Bikini Bottom surely can't be the only city underwater.

Because Squidward tried in one episode (he moved to a city of other squids), and he just couldn't take the monotony. He NEEDS the chaos that SpongeBob brings to his life.

Why did Squidward choose to unhappily take his bike to work and eat the same food everyday? He made it more monotonous than it had to be.

Spongebob took over making Squidward's life interesting, so Squidward had no idea what to do when bored.

This has bugged this troper for a long time... In one episode, Karen brings Plankton a Krabby Meal, and he plays with the Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy toys before seeing Mr. Krabs on the side of the Krabby Meal box and smashing it up. WHY DIDN'T PLANKTON JUST TAKE THE KRABBY PATTY OUT OF THE KRABBY MEAL?! It was stated earlier in the episode that a Krabby Meal comes with a Krabby Patty, so this is just inexcusable. Plankton even REACHED INSIDE the Krabby Meal to collect the toys. How could he have not found the Krabby Patty inside?!!

Mr. Krabs probably knows who Karen is. This Troper assumed that Krabs only sold her the box and the toys without an actual Krabby Patty, and the reason Krabs didn't just throw her out was because she had money.

In the episode where Plankton needs to get Karen an anniversary present, she does the obvious thing and buys a Krabby Patty and analyzes it. But another headscratcher is that she is shown printing it out, and even shows it to Plankton in a bottle, but at the end of the episode, she has to load it up again. Then again, she was not about to give it to Plankton until he actually got her gift; so she might have deliberately shredded the first recipe.

Okay, in the slide-whistle episode, after Squidward ends up in the hospital, SpongeBob and Patrick run amuck in the hospital having fun with the slide whistles. Right at the end, they interrupt a doctor sewing up a belly by imitating his actions with slidewhistles while they stand on a skylight above. The doctor starts laughing, and pulls the sewed up skin while he laughs. My question is this: Why is there a skylight in what is quite likely an operating room?

Why doesn't Plankton ever try to pump SQUIDWARD for information on how to make a Krabby Patty? He's demonstrated on numerous occasions that he knows how to make them, and he'd probably be pretty easy to buy off, given his hatred of his job.

Because Plankton doesn't have the money, as a failing businessman, to bribe him.

Squidward doesn't make the patties anyway. When he DOES, they turn out horrible. And he's never shown he knows about the secret.

He can however be made to "provide excellent service" under pressure.

There is an episode ("Sweet and Sour Squid") where Plankton does try to get information from Squidward, not that it did him any good.

Did I hear wrong or was Sandy referred to as "Sandy Squirrel" in "The Last Stand"? Did SpongeBob forget her name or something?

Even worse: no one on the writing staff noticed? No one on the production team noticed? Tom Kenny didn't even notice?!

I'm guessing Spongebob said it as a term of endearment?

What the hell happened to Mr. Krabs's head-over-heels obsession with Mrs. Puff? They seemed to be dating at the end of that one episode, but now Krabs has been showing complete indifference, sometimes rudeness towards her. Did all of this never happen, or what?

Yeah, Mr. Krabs has generally become an awful character these days. He used to have redeeming qualities; now he's nothing but a greedy jerk who doesn't care for anyone, whether it be SpongeBob, Mrs. Puff, or his own daughter.

But that doesn't answer why when the police are asking her about who tried to raid her garden, she never identified him, despite previously dating him. Like other examples on this page, it's like the writers aren't even paying attention to continuity.

It could be that any affection between them burned out over the few dates they had, in particular Mr. Krabs' emotional whipsaw over the money he spent on stuff Mrs. Puff didn't even want. And don't forget, SpongeBob has been with them all along, which is enough to bollix any relationship.

Just who the dickens is running the Krusty Krab when SpongeBob, Mr. Krabs and Squidward are out having adventures? Many times it's obviously a mealtime (like when Mr. Krabs took Mrs. Puff out on a date), prime moneymaking time for any restaurant! I worked in fast food (Mc D's) for three years, and this point continues to perplex me.

In "The Bikini Bottom Triangle", it is revealed that Pearl minds the place when her father is gone. However, it is also revealed some strange seacaptain or something takes care of the store and cooks if everyone else is gone, which begs the question, How can some random person be able to take full control of the Krusty Krab and know how to make Krabby Patties without permission, training, or any other necessary requirements?

That seacaptain is the living embodiment of the Krusty Krab?

Or perhaps it's just closed?

Mr. Krabs has been shown to close the Krusty Krab at random times for illogical reasons, to the disappointment of his customers. This is probably what happens when he, SpongeBob, or Squidward aren't around (or incidents when Squidward has to cook in SpongeBob's absence take place far more often than is shown). And since the Krusty Krab appears to be by far the best restaurant in Bikini Bottom (not saying much, though), the customers might just deal with it and come back later.

Is there a scene missing in "Fungus Among Us?" The Ick is cured whenever Gary eats it off of the other characters... But wasn't he trapped in a bubble earlier in the episode? Did he escape? Did SpongeBob and Patrick pop him out too?

Think about it. There were a couple of tubes leading between the bubbles. Lots of sharp objects in Spongebob's house, and that film can't be that hard to get off by something left around, like the swords. Gary could probably pull something out of his shell and stab the bubble as soon as everyone left the room. Pick a method, Gary escaped with reason.

The first appearance of his new higher voice was in the movie, technically.

What's with minor characters acting like they haven't met certain characters in the post-movie episodes? In "Pets Or Pests", Larry asks SpongeBob IF THEY'VE MET. And don't tell me Negative Continuity, either; Larry knows other characters in some episodes (he knows Sandy in "Someone's in the Kitchen With Sandy"). Maybe it was a "joke" on how minor of a character Larry can be?

Word of God is that, since the movie was supposed to officially end the series, any episodes that are produced after the movie are meant to take place chronologically before the movie. If that makes any sense, which it probably doesn't.

To this troper, it doesn't. If that was true, it would still mean that every episode would still have taken place before the movie, so it's like saying that all the previous episodes with Larry didn't happen... maybe it's something like SpongeBob had never gone to that store they were by, and Larry was so surprised to see him there he wasn't sure if it really was SpongeBob?

Larry is presented as vain in most episodes with him in it; he probably just forgot about SpongeBob because he doesn't give a rat's hat about him.

The episode "A Day Without Tears"... was there any reason SpongeBob called Patrick, other than to ask if he thought he could make it a day without crying? They mentioned something about a package, but it didn't get anywhere. Orphaned Punchline?

Spongehenge: those statues he carves merits discussion. First off, why on earth do they have that expression? It's the least SpongeBob could have done to carve them with a more jovial expression, but instead, he goes ahead and gives them this fearful expression that comes off as really, really annoying. Second, if that stone is depicted to be heavy, how on earth would those spindly legs hold up the weight of the statues? Even assuming that the statues are somewhat hollow and that the fluid dynamics underwater prevents the statues from collapsing on their own weight immediately, wouldn't they still erode over 3000 years? And finally, why does SpongeBob need so many of them? We'd already seen that a single statue was enough to distract them; all he needed after was one good statue to solve the problem.

The reason he needed more than one was because the jellyfish didn't like the tune the statue made. All of the statues together were able to fix the tune, for some reason.

That partially explains it, but we'll let magic solve the rest. Still doesn't explain why they have that "fearful" expression on them.

Maybe the correct musical notes were partially dependent on how he shaped his mouth?

In "Summer Job," how did SpongeBob manage to become a driver's ed teacher if he doesn't have a license?

For the sake of sadism on Mrs. Puff's part. Seriously.

It has been said: "Those that can, do. Those that can't, teach."

Considering how many times SpongeBob's taken the driving course he's probably memorized the whole thing, even if he himself still can't drive.

It bugs me that the fish in some episodes will just throw their food away. If they can't eat it, or someone ruins it, fine. But in episodes like "No Hat For Pat" they throw their food and sodas on the ground simply because they were bored with Patrick. Um... Why aren't you eating it?

Perhaps they were so badly bored that they lost their appetites?

In Boating Buddies... When Squidward complains that SpongeBob is the one that ruins his life, Mrs. Puff says, "You too?", which is very accurate. But... why did she put them together to drive?! And don't say "Alphabetical by last name", you think she would help the guy she can relate to! What, did she think they would have to suffer together?

Taken further in "Summer Job" when Mrs. Puff is blackmailed into taking over Squidward's job for a week. She doesn't last one day of SpongeBob's idiocy and Krab's abuse before quitting, blasting that taking over the life Squidward lives isn't worth evading criminal charges.

Flats the Flounder enrolls in Mrs. Puff's boating school in one episode; later on in that same episode he's seen driving a garbage truck. Of course explanations can be easily thought up for this, like maybe he is driving the truck without a license, or he is such an awful driver that he couldn't get his license yet or it was revoked. But without thinking so hard...

Maybe he was in Boating School for a traffic violation like Squidward was in "Boating Buddies".

At the end of the Bubble Buddy episode, Bubble Buddy is shown to have been sentient the whole time. That means he could have saved Scooter from drowning earlier, but chose to just stand there and watch.

That cold heartless bastard of a bubble.

Hey, Scooter sounded like he enjoyed High Tide. At least we know who's going to Bubble Hell.

Bubble Hell must be that level in Mega Man filled with spikes.

Perhaps he wasn't sentient at the time.

At the end of Krabby Road, Plankton goes back to jail. I understand that. But why do SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward get thrown in with him? They had no idea that they were harboring an escaped fugitive.

Why doesn't Plankton use his scientific genius for good instead of evil? His intelligence is amazing! His "Goo Goo Gas", with a little tweaking, could be used for eternal youth! He also invented a time machine! Surely he would make billions more money if he sold his inventions than running a greasy restaurant whose menu consists solely of Human Resources. He would even beat his competitor Krabs that way! (Plus, he could probably end up taking over the world from there, anyway.)

The Bikini Bottomites tend to "follow the herd"—they go along with anything announced publicly (apparently even in a comedy routine). They believed everything in the tabloid Krabby Kronicle; and then there's the mass histeria over "Mad Snail Disease" in "Once Bitten", as a few examples.

Several episodes state (and one episode even emphasizes) that Mr. Krabs is old. If that's so, how is his grandfather still alive? It's enough of a stretch to believe that his mother is...

Likewise with Plankton. They're at least fifty.

A few throwaway lines have indicated that Mr. Krabs is borderline immortal, like Squidward describing the Vikings as having been around "in Mr. Krabs' day" and another episode showing that his first dime was a giant rock. Presumably it's a family thing. This may have something to do with the fact that IRL some crustaceans don't age, just keep getting bigger (meaning that Mr. Krabs may not just be descended from the tiny crabs who only say "money" that have been shown in prehistoric times, he might have actually been one of them).

At the end of "Grandma's Secret Recipe", how does Plankton's grandma know to look for him in the safe? Yeah, I know, Rule of Funny and all (I guess...)... They should have shown something like, "I sense my teeth in THERE!" rather than have her show up at random. It seemed like a cheap and quick way to end the episode.

Grandma Plankton probably knows him rather well. "That Sheldon's gone off looking for the secret formula again, and I'll just bet he's in the safe."

Larry the Lobster is bright red. But only cooked lobsters are that color... zombie lobster?

Real lobsters are green before cooking. I'd think that making Larry green would make him look even more zombie-like, not less. If it helps, remember that Larry does spend a lot of time at the beach...in the sun.

I dunno if this would apply, but I have seen lobsters for sale at a pet shop that were the same orangey color as Larry. They were tiny, freshwater lobsters, but I know they were lobsters and not some other crustacean.

How can you burn a milkshake? ("Pickles")

Burn, not likely. Boiled? Maybe...

He most likely left the milkshake on the stove and forgot about it, burning it.

If Squidward plays the clarinet horribly, how does he get so many shows and rehearsals?

Squidward actually has been seen to play reasonably well sometimes, such as in Bubble Stand.

A few episodes show SpongeBob and Squidward having Sunday as their day off. So how can that episode where the K.K. is open 24 hours and forever work out? Squidward really wanted to go home, so why didn't he just go home on Sunday?

It wasn't their day off, they just forgot to switch the "closed" sign to "open".

I think he was referring to other episodes where they don't go to work and it's mentioned that it's Sunday. Anyway, it's possible that Krabs took away the day off. I wouldn't put it past him.

Then again, there's two episodes where Mr. Krabs seems to have learned the hard way that the 24-hour thing isn't a good idea.

If Squidward's rival is named Squilliam, does that mean that Squidward's name would be Widward if he were human? Also, why in earlier episodes does Mr. Krabs call him Mister Squidward when "Squidward" is clearly his first name?

It was a running gag in one of the episodes (can't remember which) when a lot of people tried and had trouble saying his last name, so maybe it's a really subtle running gag in the show, since really no one says his last name in the first place.

The episode you're talking about was "The Great Snail Race", wherein they pronounced it Tennisballs, Tentpoles, and Tortellini.

There's also the tree house episode. From their tree house, SpongeBob and Patrick are calling Squidward "Widward". I'm not sure if that hints at anything, though.

Squidward is a mix of "Squid" and "Edward". It's not much of a stretch to believe that if Squidward was human, he'd be named Edward.

Does Bikini Bottom have some sort of Labor Board? It's astounding how the Krusty Krab is able to stay open when Mr. Krabs does things like pay slightly below minimum wage, having 2 employees staff the entire resturant, and the insane amount of things he does to save a few cents...

My memory's a bit foggy but Bikini Bottom does seem to have some kind of union organization. There was an episode when SpongeBob was forced to take a vacation or Mr. Krabs would get fined. Also, in many real life cases of employee abuse it's up to the employees to complain to a higher authority to get better treatment at work. However, SpongeBob loves his job too much to realize he's being taken advantage of and Squidward only went on strike once with SpongeBob but nothing came out of it because SpongeBob destroyed the Krusty Krab. Otherwise, Squidward just complains but doesn't actually do anything.

I think it was specifically a Fry Cook Union, which makes no sense considering The Krusty Krab and the Chum Bucket seem to be the only fast food restaurants in Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob's the only fry cook at The Krusty Krab and all the food at the Chum Bucket is produced by machines. So if there was a union, wouldn't it basically be SpongeBob? Even if there were multiple fast food places in the city, why would Krabs allow his restaurant to unionize? SpongeBob would work 24/7 for free and the other union members would likely kick SpongeBob out for being so annoying.

In "Dunces and Dragons," why didn't Medieval Sandy need an air helmet?

Ignoring the 'no air helmet' issue, what was Medieval Sandy even doing underwater in the first place? Sandy lives underwater in order to do scientific research, and she (along with her ancestors) was originally from Texas. Medieval Sandy isn't doing any sort of scientific research, and there's no real reason for her to be underwater at all. Long story short, we shouldn't have seen a Medieval Sandy at all.

To both questions: It's a dream, it doesn't have to make any sense.

Try telling that to Squidly.

Where was Squidward in "Nasty Patty"?

He wasn't important to the story. He had a day off or something.

He also would have ruined the plot and we'd have an much shorter, less funny episode.

In the Krabby Kronicle, why is it wrong for the Chum Bucket to get shut down? Isn't chum made of fish anyway?

That's just the name of the restaurant. They don't actually serve chum. Maybe the misleading name is why Plankton doesn't get customers?

Actually several later episodes have shown that he DOES serve chum. In fact the episode that described why Plankton and Krabs have a rivalry they both got part of the recipe, Plankton's part just said chum, so it stands to reason that's all he cooks.

Why would Mr. Krabs deliberately frame SpongeBob for stealing the Krabby Patty formula just to get $1.25?! Doesn't Krabs need him to cook the patties? And another thing, who cooks the patties if SpongeBob isn't, if Squidward isn't (since he is terrible at cooking patties), and if the old fry cook Jim isn't (retired)?

That was a post-movie episode. Mr. Krabs has been Flanderized into an unlikeable Designated HeroJerkass who would go through so much hell to get money that he'll abuse his employees and leave his own business in jeopardy. Not to mention that episode was written by Casey Alexander and Zeus Cervas, two of the most disliked writers of SpongeBob by many fans of the show.

Perhaps the snails speak English when they're amongst themselves, but only meow around other creatures?

Why are the titles of some of the episodes changed? ie: "WhoBob WhatPants" became "What Ever Happened To SpongeBob"?

Easy marketing to raise awareness. Why bother post a long name like "Have You Seen This Snail?" instead of something sweet and to the point, like "Where's Gary"? It makes the plot somewhat understandable at the beginning so people can expect what's happening.

The Krusty Krab has had several close shaves with going out of business, but not its far less successful rival company, The Chum Bucket.

Add to that, how has the Chum Bucket kept open with literally ZERO customers and no profit for the near half a decade it has been running? The only woes Plankton seems to suffer from this are boredom and depression.

I don't think there's any possible explanation for the characters' financial situations. I mean, look at SpongeBob. Krabs pays him fake money (stated in the episode where it's discovered Plankton has a fear of whales) and yet he has a huge house, huge wads of money in his pocket, a whole bunch of full piggy banks, and a diamond under Gary's shell (from the episode where his spatula breaks)!

This is something that has been bugging me for a while. Why does SpongeBob have to outshine everybody? For example, in the episode "The Two Faces of Squidward", Squidward becomes nice and kind after being electrocuted and as the episode goes on, SpongeBob becomes jealous because Squidward becomes employee of the month and is (possibly) a better fry cook. SpongeBob has been Employee of the Month EVERY month since he's been working there. He's the best fry cook in the whole city and, in this troper's opinion, Mr. Krabs was probably just being nice when he said Squidward might be a better fry cook than him (and didn't mean to upset SpongeBob). Seriously, why does SpongeBob feel he has to be the best at everything?

I have two possible reasons: 1) to give SpongeBob the flaws of pride and competitiveness, and 2) to provide conflict for the episode in question.

Because he's a perfectionist to the point of insanity. Remember, this is a guy who was so traumatized because he thought he forgot the pickles on a Krabby Patty that he wasn't able to form a sentence for days. I'd think he'd be pretty upset when someone tells him there's a better fry cook than him.

Why do SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward not have hair that is of their color? Whenever they grow hair it's brown or black.

SpongeBob did have yellow hair in one episode.

Why should their hair be the same colour as the rest of them? Do caucasian humans have beige hair?

In the episode Sandy's Rocket, if Sandy was perfectly capable of going to the moon without a rocket (she used a jetpack), then why didn't she just go there?

Keep in mind her rocket was stacked with an enormous amount of equipment and supplies that likely couldn't be held with a jetpack. On the other hand, the fact she neglected that she could instantly travel to the moon and back (while complaining about how stupid SpongeBob is) was probably part of the gag.

Well, didn't she say she wanted to bring back moon rocks? She may need the rocket to hold them.

Why is there a different Neptune in the movie? It isn't like they couldn't get John O'Hurley, and even if they couldn't, it still doesn't explain the design change. And in the later episode The Clash of Triton, you see Neptune's entire family, and Princess Mindy is never shown. If the movie takes place after the series, you'd at least expect them to try to fix the discrepancies between the two.

Wasn't the one in the movie a king and the one in the series a god? Then again, there is the one episode (I forget the name; "SpongeBob Vs. The Patty Gadget" or something) where it says "the blast was so loud it woke King Neptune" and you see the one from the series.

I took it as the more Squidward hates SpongeBob, the more SpongeBob likes Squidward. But what bugged me about the episode was that the submarine couldn't float over the trench. It's a submarine!

Water is (Almost) Air

Pearl's disdain for her father. In the episode where Krabs retires, on his first day off, he asks Pearl if she wants to do something with him. Before he even finishes his sentence, Pearl kicks him out and whines about how she can't take it anymore. WTF?

That's how the show portrays all teenage girls. They all use Totally Radical slang, hate their parents, and want to go to the mall.

Why didn't Squidward notice that there is a gorilla just sitting around his house in I Had An Accident? Instead he was watering his plants nonchalantly.

Since he saw Patrick (and maybe Sandy) involved, he probably thought some variation of, "Oh, what an idiot. Just ignore them Squidward..." Or maybe he felt the gorilla was somebody else.

Why is it only the main drain would drain the ocean when any drain would?

It's the main drain. Maybe other drains only drain part of it, especially if they're closer to the surface.

Squidward has never had problems with people touching the glass so why did he in Sponge-cano?

Why was Pearl working at the Krusty Krab in The Bikini Bottom Triangle when she never wanted to?

If no one is working there, the restaurant is not making money. So there would be less mall money her dad can give her.

How come Pearl now hates SpongeBob? They interacted pretty well in "Bossy Boots" but in "Slumber Party" and "Tunnel of Glove" she just plain hates him?

It was a girls-only sleepover in "Slumber Party", IIRC, which explains (but doesn't totally excuse) her behavior there...as for "Tunnel of Glove", I haven't seen that one, but I'm going to say she was going through a fit of teenage angst at the time.

"The Chaperone" was also an episode where they interacted pretty well. I guess we can chalk this up to Flanderization

They were also really chummy in "Bossy Boots," the episode where Pearl starts working at the Krusty Krab.

Why was SpongeBob smiling when Squidward was getting beaten into a pulp in "Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful"?

I'm guessing that was in one of the later seasons? The later the season, the creepier and stupider SpongeBob is. For some reason, they think weird is funny, so they make SpongeBob super weird, to the point that he's disturbing. They don't understand that weird isn't funny by itself, it needs to be done humorously.

In "Christmas Who?" we learn that no one underwater has heard of Christmas (probably due to Jesus being a human and so they never really heard about him or got the concept of Christianity), but in the earlier episode "Jellyfishing," Squidward comes home from the hospital and is welcomed by SpongeBob and Patrick, with Patrick mistakenly saying "Merry Christmas!"

The show doesn't really have canon. The Christmas episode could have happened before.

A few problems with "Big Sister Sam". First, HOW COULD PATRICK REUNITE WITH SOMEONE HE HASN'T HEARD FROM FOR YEARS? Did he just see Sam on the street with no words and both signaled that they should meet up? Second, since Squidward's house was thrown by Sam to the right, why didn't the house hit SpongeBob's as well? We clearly see his house also destroyed later in the episode and, if they wanted the plot to stay the same, the house could have been thrown towards the street. Finally, how is SpongeBob still happy and compassionate to Sam at the end of the episode even though she obliterated his house? Has the Negative Continuity of the show gotten to a point where things that happened a few seconds ago are forgotten?

I don't know about the first two but the last one's obvious. First, SpongeBob is an idiot. Look at basically any recent episode for proof of this. Second, SpongeBob is for whatever reason supposed to forgive Patrick for whatever stupid thing he, and by extension his relatives, does.

People reunite with estranged relatives and friends all the time. Maybe Patrick went on the underwater equivalent of the Jeremy Kyle Show or something, who knows.

And to add, Patrick mentions in the early episode "Something Smells" that he doesn't have a sister. It could be that he just forgot all about her.

Patrick isn't exactly accurate when it comes to his own family; he mistook another sea-star couple for his own parents in "I'm With Stupid" and neither they nor his own parents had any problem with that. So it's not impossible he just forgot about his own sister.

In "Sentimental Sponge", the sanitation police show up when SpongeBob refuses to throw away his trash. You're telling me that a town of 528 peoplefish sea creatures has its own police squad for cleanliness? Rule of Funny may apply, but its a bit of a stretch.

Have you seen how seriously they take littering? A sanitation police seems right up their alley.

If the "Tunnel of Glove" is supposed to be a tunnel of love, why would people like Pearl and SpongeBob (who don't have dates) go on it? Furthermore, why did two of Pearl's friends go on it together?

Because they want to ride it to see what it's like but either don't have boyfriends, or have boyfriends who just aren't there.

They all three wanted to go on it together (which is not uncommon for teenage girls to do), but they didn't know that it was only two per car, so Pearl was left behind. As for SpongeBob... maybe Patrick left him to go eat...

How does Spongebob know about Leif Ericsson?

It has been bugging me for some time now about the ending of "Someone's in the Kitchen With Sandy". She got arrested for public nudity. First of all, most fish you see on the show are naked. Squidward has been naked (wait, nevermind, he got a ticket for that once), Patrick and SpongeBob have been naked, and I mean completely naked. A lot of girl fish wear only their underwear. So how is it that Sandy gets arrested for public nudity if she was only in her underwear, while most fish and most main characters get complelety naked and don't get arrested?

Fur Is Clothing and she wasn't wearing her fur or her suit. Doesn't make much sense, but considering Krabs's embarrassment concerning being without his shell, that's likely what constitutes nudity. Until we see a filleted fish walking through town, we'll never know.

He may have been embarrased about molting the shell but he still appeared in front of people without it and no one seemed very shocked that he was naked. Personally, I think the Sandy thing is just a failed attempt at a joke.

Speaking of her suit, why wasn't she wearing it? Plankton only took her fur and went around without the suit.

Simply so she'd be mocked by the townpeople (so they wouldn't help her) and later arrested for said "public nudity." It's also possible her suit stunk as well from the fur.

The Movie takes place after the series, right? So that explains the absence of Mindy, and why SpongeBob has no maturity; he regains it later. But didn't they mention the Krusty Krab 2 later on?

Because it hasn't been built yet. It was built in the movie.

But they mentioned it as if it had been built, and I think we saw it once in an episode right after the movie.

It was built in the movie. It was never shown in any episodes. There was an episode about making a Krusty Krab commercial that had the Krusty Krab's "under study" but that was way before the movie and was really just a quick gag.

So are Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy actual superheroes, or are they fakes who starred in an old TV show?

Yes, they are superheroes. It has been shown that they possess highly advanced gadgets and machines, including a shrink ray, an invisible car, and a literal Idiot Ball. They also can summon fish to help them (think Aquaman, but with old fish) and can create balls of water to throw at evildoers.

I assume they're former "heroes" who did some kind of good public service (policemen, firemen, etc.) who then took up a role as a superhero in the public eye. Of course, now they're old and senile.

At the beginning of the episode where SpongeBob breaks Gary's shell, SpongeBob wakes up in the middle of the night after hearing a noise. SpongeBob's phone line has been cut. No explanation is given for this. It's not necessary for the scene, and it isn't presented as a joke. Why was the line cut?

In the episode "The Krabby Kronicle", is it me or did everybody who read the Krusty Krab's newspaper believe every single word? And for that matter, why would scientists try to confiscate Sandy's science awards if she won them all fairly?

I'm pretty sure the citizens of Bikini Bottom are supposed to be complete morons. As for the second question, again, they're morons. Plus the article may have said something about her faking being smart or cheating when she won the awards. And it doesn't have much to do with your question, but I think if she had karate chopped the two "scientists" it would have been a crowning moment of awesome.

Same episode as above: Why did Sandy immediately assume that it was SpongeBob who wrote that stuff about her? I mean, she and SpongeBob were friends ever since the first season! She should trust him while knowing he'd never say such things against her!

The episode where the jellyfish are attracted to SpongeBob's holes when the wind goes through them and it makes music he hides in a cave and decides to make a stone SpongeBob to talk to. After he realizes that the jellyfish are attracted to the stone SpongeBob, he tries to leave it there so the jellyfish swarm around it and he can leave. But the stone SpongeBob sounds awful. He decides to make another in a different size, but he's not sure what size would work so he decides he has to make a bunch of them. There's my problem. He makes a bunch of them, but they're all the same size which defeats the purpose of making a bunch.

He needed to figure out how to carve the rocks so it would produce the same noise he makes. Thus, he makes a bunch of them.

I know but he says he needs to make a bunch of them with different sizes. But they're all the same size when he makes them.

It's more the size of the holes that makes the difference; the wind's pitch changes with the holes' size.

What is the Krusty Krab considered? At times it's a popular and respected local place, or a restaurant well-known throughout the sea.. But at other times it's a poorly received place.

It really depends on the episode. There were episodes when Squidward was forced to take over for Spongebob's position and we all know Squidward can't cook Krabby Patties. There are also times when Spongebob really messes up and then everyone leaves. Or basically, it's a Rule of Funny. And let's not forget how the resturaunt can be dirty at times.

Anyone notice that the Post Movie episodes seem to give Squidward more Throw the Dog a Bone moments than in the Pre Movie episodes? Just look at the TTDAB page to see what I'm talking about.

I don't understand a lot about the Black Jack episode. For those who don't know, the big Twist Ending at the end of the episode is that SpongeBob's violent cousin Black Jack is really about as tall as Plankton. Yet while SpongeBob was tiny (older episodes showed this), he got bigger, while Black Jack must have stayed the same... the EXACT same, personality, dress, voice, etc. And why is it none of SpongeBob's relatives tell him how small Black Jack is? Are they really THAT afraid of a guy who littered to not see him for as long as SpongeBob had?

I think they assumed he knew he was that small. Plus none of them had seen him (his grandma gets a call, and his uncle just calls him a dangerous criminal, the grandma doesn't sound afraid of him though) in a long time because he was in jail. I don't think Black Jack being small made much sense overall, though.

He probably got smaller during the time he spent in prison. It might not make much sense for him to shrink THAT much, but remember that SpongeBob was just a kid when he had the flashback about him, and he's over twenty, twenty-three IIRC, so Black Jack probably spent more than 15 years in prison, 19 at most.

If SpongeBob didn't eat the bomb pie, why was he sucking his fingers and going "mmmm"?

He probably ate his lunch, or something. Remember, he's in the Krusty Krab. And it was supposed to be a false lead-in to make you think he DID eat the pie.

Maybe he was doing that in anticipation of eating the pie?

Perhaps he only took a small piece and decided to save it for later?

Speaking of which, why couldn't the doctors help SpongeBob? Can't they just surgically remove the pie from him?

"Slimy Dancing". So only one dancer is allowed to perform in the competition. Then how did SpongeBob AND Patrick get in, especially when their dance was a limbo?

They audition together but have to perform seperately? And we actually don't know if their dance was a limbo; it could have been something else.

How come Pearl always hangs out with those so called "friends" of hers on the episode "Whale Of A Birthday," when they constantly belittle her? And what gave them the right to act like party inspectors for her party?

Like an answer from earlier on here, this show portrays teenage girls like this: bratty, spoiled, whiny, and plain mean.

So Krabs took the secret ingredient to the secret formula in "The Patty Caper". How? Did he just jump on the truck unnoticed? And how did the S.W.A.T. team or security team or whatever it was not notice that the suitcase was empty?!

Steal it when it wasn't being delivered (in a factory or where ever it's kept before they get orders) and had them deliver an empty case to SpongeBob to make it look like he stole it? And they probably wouldn't realize it's empty anyway, considering they wouldn't look inside it.

How old is Squidward? Older episodes made it seem like he was about 10 years older than SpongeBob. Newer episodes make it seem like he's almost an old man. "A Friendly Game" has him wearing dentures, his "late date" in "Love That Squid" looked like an old cartoon character, etc.

None of the characters really have a clear-cut age. Sure, SpongeBob is officially twenty-three, but numerous episodes point to him being much older (hundreds of 'Employee of the Month' awards, his countless failed driving tests etc.), and he also behaves much like a hyper five-year-old. But I'd guess that he's about late 30s/early 40s. As for dentures... maybe he played the clarinet in such a way that broke his teeth? Who knows...

Who was that fry cook in "Truth Or Square" that Squidward called "Not-SpongeBob?" He's some weird greasy guy that just has that one appearance.

Why did SpongeBob become such a failure in karate? In "Karate Choppers", he was just as good as Sandy. In "No Weenies Allowed" and other episodes, he sucks at it.

SpongeBob has never really had a set level for how good he is at karate. Even in the older episodes it seemed to switch between Sandy beating him every time with little effort to him always beating Sandy. So it seems to just be following the old tradition of using whatever fits the episode.

Many of SpongeBob's secondary attributes vary by episode. One day he's struggles to lift two marshmallows on a stick, and the next he can rip a mailbox off its hinges with ease.

He has "off" days sometimes?

How is it that they're celebrating the Krusty Krab's "eleventy-seventh" (I'm assuming that's 117th) anniversary? Mr. Krabs founded that restaurant and he definitely isn't 117 years old.

Eleventy Seventh IS NOT 117th. In a TV Guide article about Truth or Square, someone (I forget who) said that they chose Eleventy Seventh because it's a timeless number, that way they can show the episode every year. Of course this is undermined by the Chum Bucket celebrating 50 years and Patchy the Pirate outright stating that it's SpongeBob's 10th anniversary.

Did he start the business himself or just became the manager through promotions? Maybe the restaurant IS that old. It could also be that the Krusty Krab is a chain that is 117 years old and Mr. Krabs is a franchise owner celebrating the anniversary of the first Krusty Krab. Or it could be that eleventy seventh doesn't mean what you think.

No, the Krusty Krab was a retirement home before he bought it (it says so in the employee video episode) and it's pretty obvious it isn't a chain, especially consideriing in the movie he opens the second one. I'd say the third option, eleventy seventh doesn't mean 117, and they just used it to not technially get the number wrong.

The first dime he ever made was a boulder. I think he is well over 117. And remember that a lot of sea invertebrates are incredibly Long Lived.

I'm honestly shocked nobody has mentioned this yet. I honestly wonder something: what's the deal with Old Man Jenkins? In several episodes in which he makes an appearance, he looks COMPLETELY different. In the episode "Sailor Mouth" (the cursing episode), Jenkins is portrayed as a short old man, with a green-ish color, with rounded glasses and what appear to be liver spots on his head. This look stayed constant through many of his appearances. However, there are a few other looks Jenkins displays throughout the series. In the episode "My Pretty Seahorse", Jenkins is eaten by Sponge Bob's seahorse Mystery. He is spit out a few scenes later, and the result is a short, blue fish, with circular glasses not much unlike his first iteration. He is also wearing clothes akin to SpongeBob's, but rounded a bit to fit his body, unlike the white shirt from his first look. Later, in the 'Lost Episode', Jenkins is shown shaped akin to the many generic fish, but extremely old looking, almost wilted. He also doesn't have glasses with this look, and takes on a completely different personality: he is a farmer, who becomes Cannonball Jenkins after SpongeBob angers him by destroying his grain silo. He later appears similarly to this incarnation in the episode "The Main Drain", in which he gets shorter, becomes green, and has a grey beard. his attire is similar to his farmer Jenkins look, minus the straw hat. Not to mention the fact that in his speaking roles, his voice seems to change often. Is all of this ever explained? I know the show has a ridiculously convoluted continuity, but this might be pushing it. The only explanation I can come up with is multiple people named Old Man Jenkins.

It's not that uncommon a name. Maybe the various Jenkinses are related.

In the first episode, "Help Wanted", how does SpongeBob make all those patties if Mr.Krabs never told him the formula?

Maybe he kept the formula back there during that time and SpongeBob found it?

Or else Krabs had already mixed all the ingredients together in a large bowl, so all SpongeBob had to do was make the patty shapes and cook them.

Maybe Sponge played a part in the creation of the secret formula?

HOW is it that SpongeBob showed he was boneless in Squirrel Jokes, but in other episodes he has bones, ( skull, spine, etc. )

I just finished watching the episode "Yours, Mine and Mine". Now, I know Patrick's intelligence (or lack thereof) has decreased over the series' course, but just how dumb is he supposed to be? Isn't there a set level of dumbness for Patrick or does his dumbness just rise/drop to whatever level the episode requires?

In "Tentacle Vision":

Squidward: Patrick, how stupid are you?

Patrick: It varies.

This may or may not have been discussed already, but I'm watching "Whatever Happened to Spongebob?" at the moment, and I wonder: Spongebob left a year's supply of snail food for Gary, right? If it was that long, wouldn't someone (most likely at the Krusty Krab) have known that Spongebob was missing and gone looking for him? Or did Gary just eat that huge supply incredibly quickly?

(Original Poster) But don't you see all the potential Loophole Abuse here?

Yes, they're using Loophole Abuse. That's the joke.

Spongebob also drives a truck at some point. And a rock. He can drive anything but a car, apparently.

In the episode where Spongebob and Patrick (and Squidward before we went down the "Fly of Dispair") become the Flying Dutchman's crew, after Spongebob tells Squidward that they get three wishes, and that Patrick used the first and he used the second (to get Squidward there) Squidward tells Spongebob to wish for something to make it so they don't get eaten. How does Squidward know they're about to get eaten? He got there after they talked about it and no one mentioned it to him.

He's probably heard of the Flying Dutchman before and may have heard stories about the Dutchman eating his crew members.

He really only conned Spongebob and Patrick. Plus, they both got rich enough to rent out an entire restaurant for an evening.

Can someone please explain to me WHY people come back to the Krusty Krab? They have been poisoned at least once, the place doesn't seem that clean, and the prices are a rip-off. Why would you come back?

The same reason people still watch the show despite its decline in quality...

With McDonald's, many people know that the food is crap, but they still buy it now and then because it tastes so damn good. Presumably, the same logic applies here.

Mr. Krabs said people come for bad service, crummy decor, etc. and IIRC, said it more than once.

Why hasn't Squidward learned by now that Spongebob and Patrick don't understand the concept of sarcasm? Every moment he's sarcastic about Spongebob's offers or ideas, it only encourages him which in turn makes things worse for himself [Squidward].

Rule of Funny. Well, what's classed as funny in later episodes, at least...

He's yelled at them. At the top of his lungs. Multiple, multiple, multiple times. They're really that thick-headed.

Besides, Sponge and Pat are nice dudes, who occasionally even apologize to Squidward for bugging him, so Squidward probably just lets it go.

Why hasn't Squidward got a restraining order against Spongebob yet? Beforehand, Spongebob was only mildly annoying and overtly cheerful, being the Man Child that he was. Nowadays, he's completely insane, and his obsession with Squidward has reached stalker levels of creepy. Squidward would have easily enough grounds to file a restraining order, so why hasn't he done it yet?

I'm not exactly sure how restraining orders work, but I don't see how one would help Squidward since he lives next door to Spongebob and works at the same job as him. Not to mention, Spongebob would probably just cry 24/7 over it until Squidward finally got fed up and annulled it. Either that or Patrick would come out of nowhere and eat it.

In fact one time he did get a restraining order against Spongebob, which worked out about as well as you'd think it would. Of course Patrick wants in on the fun as well.

Exactly what are we seeing on the title card for "Squidtastic Voyage"? I know it's Squidward's innards, but is it any specific part of him? It kind of looks like brain matter and a stem, but it's a tunnel. And the brain matter is the color of Squidward's skin (though that may be to further indicate that it's the inside of his body).

They look somewhat like blue curly villi, so his intestines?

In New Student Starfish, when Spongebob was freaking out about Mrs. Puff taking away his good noodle star, why didn't he just tell her that Patrick drew the picture, not him?

It's pretty hard to think rationally when you're having a freak-out. Plus, this is Spongebob we're talking about. He freaks out over the most minor of provocations.

Something that got me while I was overhearing an episode of Spongebob from my niece's room: Why doesn't Plankton use his other talents to acquire business? He's a robotic and engineering genius, and he has created AI so sophisticated that it could actually be considered sentient. Why doesn't he just sell his robots and all the products of his mad genius to the Bikini Bottom military and other top buyers, rather than using them to try and steal a secret formula for fast food in a run-down, middle-of-nowhere hellhole of a restaurant in increasingly-cartoonish plots? Hell, if it's just about beating Krabs, he could buy the Krabby Patty secret formula from the greedy bastard and then perfect it for his own restaurant, putting Krabs out of business for good. He could even humiliate Krabs further by hiring Squidward and maybe even Spongebob (who would undoubtedly lose respect for Krabs due to the latter's lack of integrity) at triple the wages they were normally getting working under Krabs, then he could maybe even hire Krabs in a false gesture of pity and put him to work cleaning toilets or something. Shit, man. It would be so easy. Why hasn't he done this?

Because he's not that smart at all, and certainly not as smart as he thinks he is. In the movie, Plankton forgot the last letter of the alphabet and didn't consider his theft of Neptune's crown would leave fingerprints until Karen pointed both out to him. He's described in his first appearance as being "99% hot gas". The guy's a Gadgeteer Genius who may have gone to college, but a lot of his misfortune can be chalked up to a complete lack of common sense or willingness to think ahead.

If the Flying Dutchman is several thousands of years old, why is he dressed like a medieval European pirate? If he's that old, he couldn't be a Dutchman, because the Dutch weren't really around thousands of years ago, and the word "Dutch" and "Dutchman" have only been in use for a handful of centuries. So...

He just liked the name and costume? No doubt he'd tried on more than a few hats over the centuries.

Why does Spongebob dress so formally to work as a cook at a fast food restaurant?

The clothes that he wears to work can be considered his street clothes, as he wears them all the time.

Spongebob has shown in multiple episodes that he can rip off his arm and grow new ones, and it's shown to be normal for him. Then he gets a splinter and is suddenly incapaple of this. WHY?

As before, Rule of Funny. Spongebob has no trouble at all yanking his arms off, right up to the minute he NEEDS to do so. Then of course he totally forgets how during his sufferings.

The level of hatred Bikini Bottom's citizenry displays for the main characters (Spongebob, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, Patrick, Sandy, Plankton) is insane. It goes all the way Up to thirteen Why are they so hated?

You mean the movie that is one of the few "episodes" that have a solid place in canon? In this case, last.

Well...maybe all of us viewers probably hate him!

Why does Spongebob even wear clothing? Are there even any bits on a sponge that would be considered obscene, even to other sponges?

By that logic then no one in the show should wear clothes.

In "Sailor Mouth", why is everyone offended by Spongebob speaking word #11, given that Squidward believes there are only 7 words that should never be spoken, but there are 13 for sailors? (Words #8-13 should therefore not be offensive to non-sailors.)

It could be meant to mean something along the lines of "There are seven words that should never be spoken. Well, technically, there's thirteen but only sailors know words #8-13. Same way as a little child might know 'fuck', 'shit' or 'damn' but probably not a lot of racist slurs but adults tend to know lots of those type of swears, even if they don't use them. Of course, you do warn kids those are bad words but why would you say ... teach your child Mandarin swear words, if they're not likely to come across them? "There's this word. Don't say it." Why not y'know just not teach me the word in the first place? I'm sure naval brats are taught about "The Thirteen Words That Should Never Be Spoken". Make sense?

The words may be numbered different for Sailors and Non-Sailors. Spongebob says the word that's #11 for sailors. The extra ones either change meaning around sailors, or the only way to learn the word and meaning is word-of-mouth.

Am I the only one who's noticed that Painty the Pirate (the guy who sings the theme song) has an eye on his left cheek?

You know it really is a painting? When he "speaks", it's really just the singer's (Patchy) mouth slapped on with special effects. Or Patchy is covered entirely in green except for his mouth, and they add the painting Green Screen style.

Actually the Behind The Scenes for Atlantis Squarepantis shows that its just a hole cut into the painting where the mouth's supposed to be.

Why haven't they redone the intro? At least reanimate it? It still has the same old traditional animation style of the first season, which is at a stark contrast with the current animation.

TV shows tend to keep they're intros regardless of Art Shift, so its not necessary. Although if you're desperate for a change, I'd suggest taking a second look at "Truth or Square".

Nostalgia.

In Its A Sponge Bob Christmas, if Santa has "his jolly little eyes" on everyone, then how come he didn't see or even HEAR Plankton stating his plan about the jerktonium? Or even building ToyBob?

How could Santa even get fooled by the robot and think it was Spongebob when the real Spongebob was right next to him!

Wall Bangers Why do the show's writers just seem so bad sometimes? Like in this episode!

I don't really blame the writers, I mean at least the king of Getting Crap Past the Radar, Aaron Springer, didn't write this. But if Santa has an all seeing eye, he should've seen SOMETHING about Plankton.

That was said in song, I doubt that was meant to be taken literally, also Santa has to deliver to BILLIONS of people (and fishes apparently), if he had an eye on everyone, it's probably not at once.

Santa is either retarted or was asleep when Plankton was sleeping

In Googly Artiste, shouldn't SpongeBob have told Mr. Krabs that Patrick was raising money for him (Krabs) by selling the artistic Krabby Patties?

This isSpongeBob we're talking about; he'd prefer to keep it a surprise.

And no doubt Mr. Krabs would have tripled the price or ask for a major cut of the profits once he understood what was going on.

In The Movie, what was the point of opening a second Krusty Krab right next to the original? It would make a lot more sense if it were placed in a much different location in Bikini Bottom or in a different town or something, since having the same restaurant be close to one another wouldn't be too convenient if one lives somewhere else.

Rule of Funny, and Mr. Krabs was asked about it and he said he did it for the money. I doubt that he thought about where he was going to put it.

Besides, this troper lives in a neighborhood with two Mcdonalds and I had tolerated it.

Because more Krusty Krabs means more customers. Maybe he plans to make it a full-blown franchise?

Why is Spongebob so ridiculously obsessed with Squidward in the new episodes?

In the episode where Sandy got fleas, why didn't she just shave her fur?

In another episode, "Someone's in the kitchen with Sandy",the cops and the other people mocked her and even arrested her because she had didn't have fur.

No, they arrested her for being nude. She could've shaved her fur and still worn her spacesuit outside her dome.

How can SpongeBob live "in a pineapple under the sea"? Don't pineapples, you know, float?

Well... this particular pineapple was hollowed out and filled with water. Plus there are glass windows with metal rings around them. Not to mention all the fishing lures, picture frames, bathroom and kitchen stuff (which are presumably quite heavy). It all adds up and so we'll just say it makes the pineapple dense enough to stay at the bottom of the sea. For the record, this troper saw the episode that showed how he got his house (Truth Or Square, I believe) so... We could also just say Water Is Air, a theme of the show, since an ordinary pencil fell to Bikini Bottom the same way.

Spongebob has been shown to be a very good artist (sculpting, different shapes bubbles, the art episode when he makes a sculpture with Squidward as an art teacher) in a few episodes. Why can he just quit his minimum-wage job to become an artist?

In "Krusty Towers," Mr. Krabs recalls going to a hotel that inspired him to build Krusty Towers. The hotel had a policy of "We shall not deny a guest even the most ridiculous request." Mr. Krabs was upset that the hotel overcharged him for everything (25 dollars for a hamburger!). So why didn't Mr. Krabs, the greedy guy that he is, invoke the hotel's policy and request for him not to be charged for anything?

He was too shocked at the price to think straight.

At the end of "Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful", why did both SpongeBob and Squidward get tickets? And for that matter, why did they get them from a can dropping from the statue? They didn't even touch it!

In "No Hat For Pat", Patrick keeps falling because the hat makes him heavier. If this is the case, then why didn't this happen in "Big Pink Loser"?

Different writers for seasons 'way' apart. The writers can't be expected to remember everything.

In "Fools in April", what exactly is that fake tongue that comes out of SpongeBob's mouth? SpongeBob seems to be just functionally fine with that creature detached, implying it's not his actual tongue, but the living "tongue" is never explained or mentioned again. It's been bugging me ever since I saw the episode over a decade ago. While I do realize the series is full of weird, out-of-nowhere moments, this one sticks out to me more than most other odd moments.

A tongue-eating louse? Spongebob could regrow his tongue, so the louse coming out wouldn't be a problem.

If the suds are the sponge equivalent of the common cold or the flu, (which are both very common ailments,) why would Spongebob not know what to expect when he went to the hospital to be treated? Surely as a twentysomething-year-old, he's been sick before.

Sponges can live for up to 15, 000 years, so twenty something is still quite young for him.

In "The Chaperone," Pearl's junior prom date dumped her, so Mr Krabs suggest that she let Spongebob take her to the prom. Pearl is reluctant to agree, but only because Spongebob is.... well.... a dork. But Pearl is 16 in the episode, and Spongebob is later implied to be in his twenties. Isn't it a little weird for a grown adult to be the prom date of a sixteen-year-old girl?

Why does Spongebob have so much respect and admiration for Squidward even though Squidward treats him like garbage a great majority of the time? I get that Spongebob is a Nice Guy who has a kind word for everyone, but Squidward is so Easily Forgiven, and we haven't seen an episode where Squidward has gone too far for Sponge to tell him off and not forgive him for a while. He's even told off Mr Krabs! But not Squidward. Is there some reason why he's so quick to forgive the guy who berates him and verbally abuses him constantly?

If Mr Krabs apparently knew what the suds were, why did he just send Spongebob home? Why didn't he call him a cab and send him to the hospital, given what the treatment involves?

Why did Squidward rip up the valentine Spongebob gave him? Even for him that was just pretty rude.

It's because Squidward does not like SpongeBob at all. SpongeBob can't get it through his thick skull that Squidward doesn't want anything to do with him. Also, Squidward can unnecessarily be a jerk sometimes.

When Sponge is at the beach in his swimming trunks, why does he still have sleeves? That's just kind of weird.

In the episode with the Flying Dutchman, when Spongebob wishes the Flying Dutchman was a vegetarian, the Dutchman turns them into fruit. But Spongebob specifically wished that the Flying Dutchman wouldn't be able to eat them due to being a vegetarian, so how does that work?

He granted the wish. He couldn't eat them, as he was a vegetarian. So he made them into fruit. Now he can. They never wished that he wouldn't eat them now, forever, and in the past somehow.

Then shouldn't he have granted the wish and then turned them into fruit? He did both simultaneously. So he wasn't unable to eat them at any point in time, so the wish wasn't granted.

If Spongebob is incapable of driving a boat, but he can drive a rock and a sandwich and anything else.... why does he not just find a rock or a giant sandwich to drive?! Why does the kid even needs to be in boating school if he can drive other things?

He owns and uses a unicycle (which, for some reason, he refers to as a bike), so he does have other means of non-motorized transportation. It might just be the fact that he wants to pass boating school for pride's sake.

Why do people refer to Spongebob as a kid and a "boy?" He may be a manchild (and a small guy,) but he's still a highly-skilled, intelligent, self-sufficient grown adult with his own house, a full-time career, and a closet full of awards. I read somewhere that he's in his late twenties. So why do other people always refer to him as a "kid?" He's an adult!

In "Suds," when Spongebob puts on a coat, scarf, and hat to go to the doctor, why is he still wearing shorts? Doesn't it seem a little counter-productive to be wearing shorts when you're already sick and weak in the knees?

It looks like he just put heavier clothes on top of what he normally wears. He either may not have had the energy to actually change out of his shorts, or he might have been hesitant to do so, since that would necessitate removing his shoes, which he pretty much never does (likely because he doesn't know how to tie them). It's a stretch, but hey, it's worth somethin'.

SpongeBob offers his "prized driftwood carving of Squidward" as a scratching post for Gary when he leaves SpongeBob for Patrick. Snails are obviously portrayed as the underwater equivalent of cats, but how exactly would a snail use a scratching post?

There are certain episodes in which Spongebob will suddenly act like a total dick, and will snap right back to his sweet personality in the next episode. It isn't just a new thing, either- "Employee of the Month" and "As Seen On TV" had him acting like an arrogant prick, and he purposefully made Patrick burn his hand on a stove in "Big Pink Loser." He nearly killed Gary in "The Great Snail Race" just to one-up Squidward, despite caring for Gary lovingly in every other episode, and he was a real dick to Patrick in "The Fry Cook Games." Patrick may have been a bit Innocently Insensitive, but flat-out insulting the guy was pretty uncalled for. So... what's with this inconsistency of character? Spongebob is well-known to be a really nice, good-natured dude, but he's been a huge asshole in many episodes.

Just like sometimes it's good for the antagonist to have positive traits, having a protagonist with a visibly (if not inconsistently) flawed personality can be good for unpredictability and, hell, sometimes it's just funny. Plus, in many of those instances, SpongeBob was provoked or had another somewhat justifiable/understandable reason for what he did:

He takes immense pride in his abilities as a fry cook and is used to winning Employee of the Month, so when his ego is threatened by Squidward, he responds aggressively. "As Seen On TV" is the archetypical "false sense of fame going to a character's head" plot (plus, once again, it involves his job, which he probably feels he should be famous for— and he may have a point). In "Big Pink Loser", the stove incident was just SpongeBob trying to prove a point to Patrick, since the latter was being annoying and unreasonable, and he just went too far with his drill-sergeant nasty attitude in "The Great Snail Race," which is also a common plot.

"The Fry Cook Games" may have the best case for justifying SpongeBob's insensitivity; Patrick undermined SpongeBob's job as a fry cook (which, again, he takes extremely seriously), and SpongeBob did have kind of a good point— before that episode, Patrick tried to work at the Krusty Krab and literally couldn't do anything right except open a pickle jar (and he struggled with that, needing SpongeBob's help to do it), but had the nerve to say that being a fry cook is easy. Plus, SpongeBob was being manipulated by Mr. Krabs.

Lastly, you could probably count many more instances of times during which SpongeBob should have lost his shit and murdered Patrick, Squidward, Plankton, or Mr. Krabs, but actually did something nice in response to their jerkass actions, or simply forgave them. For the love of Poseidon, Mr. Krabs sold SpongeBob's soul to the underwater version of Satan for 62 FUCKING CENTS (and, what some might not consider, he probably only felt remorseful because SpongeBob is the best fry cook in Bikini Bottom, and makes Krabs a lot of money by working for him). In return, SpongeBob basically told him "No worries, bro— it's cool." He might be sporadically mean-spirited, but those moments are largely outweighed by instances of SpongeBob being far nicer than any sentient creature (who gets treated like he does) should be.

All in all, SpongeBob is a character who's definitely nice, friendly, and all-around good-natured at heart, but he's not perfect, which explains his seemingly random asshole-ish actions, and which is also probably a good thing for the character and the show.

If Sandy is so smart (she's been shown on numerous occasions to be a borderline scientific genius), how did she not realize that a sea sponge can't survive in an arid, water-less environment (episode "Tea At The Treedome")? Even after SpongeBob showed obvious signs of dehydration, she was apparently still oblivious to the fact that he's a water animal, not an amphibian.

This was before the writers decided to turn Sandy into a scientist.

And on top of all that, she had the nerve to say, at the end of the episode, "If y'all wanted water, ya shoulda asked!", despite the fact that SpongeBob DID ask for water at one point, at which point she ignored him to go and put her flowers in a vase. Yeah, Sandy. He totally should have asked for water.Did you go deaf or something?

In "One Coarse Meal," Plankton tries to kill himself by lying in the street waiting for a bus to run him over, and asking Spongebob to step on him. But wait a minute, Plankton has been stepped on many times in the past, and he has been fine, if not slightly injured. He's even been eaten! Why would this kill him?

How do SpongeBob and Patrick's water helmets protect their entire bodies from dry air? Shouldn't their arms and legs wither away from dehydration? Also, how can they survive without their water helmets in snow (episode "Survival of the Idiots")? Yes, snow is technically water, but snow on land isn't the same as water the ocean; there's no air in the ocean, whereas there's still a lot more air than snow in Sandy's treedome. Plus, when they go up in Sandy's tree, there's no snow or water, and they suffer no ill effects.

How long has Plankton been trying to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula? We do know that it's been since they were kids in school together, but how long ago was that? In one episode, Plankton reveals that he's been throwing card games for 15 years, waiting for Krabs to "slip up," and Mr. Krabs' first dime is a large rock— "I've been in business a long time, boy."

If "Barnacles!" is considered a mild profanity in the Spongebob universe, what does that say about Barnacle Boy?

It might not be a profanity necessarily (as in something that a child would be scolded for saying), but more of a less-harmless exclamation. It's also used as a sort of euphemism that seems to equivalent to how we use "bugger" or "bastard" (although not as profane as the latter)— Mr. Krabs often calls SpongeBob "Ya little barnacle." It still doesn't really make "Barnacle Boy" any more logical, but... maybe it has another meaning that we don't know of? Maybe actual barnacles are known for being tough or whatever.

It's most likely a word that has both a profane and a non-profane meaning, like "ass" or "damn".

Gary and other snails began making That Poor Cat sound effects after the movie.

So the song "Sandy Squirrel" on the Sponge Out of Water soundtrack, what's with the romantic lyrics?

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